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What Scott Pilgrim and Louie C.K. Have in Common

By K.P. Hooker · August 10, 2010

 

At first, without overthinking it, it seems as though the world of Scott Pilgrim is a farce. The world is unreal and the visual style is influenced by graphic novel action and onomatopoeias. Watching the new series Louie changed my mind.
 
If you haven't seen Louie, watch it on Hulu right this split second. The blend of comedy, drama, and stand-up is killer. If you have seen it, you've observed moments that are dictated by Louie's point of view. For example, in the pilot episode Louie goes on a date. While the date is going poorly, albeit realistic, his date suddenly ditches him by darting into a helicopter that immediately takes off. For an episode that is a little surreal and wholly impressionistic, watch the episode "Travel Day / South". Louie takes the experience of flying and multiplies every annoying part of it times ten from taxi drivers brawling for his fare to the enormous size of the person sitting next to him on the cramped plane.
 
If we can see Louie's world through a Louie lens, perhaps Scott Pilgrim's story is through his own lens too. In a self-aware moment of the graphic novel, Scott's friend compares Scott's new job to a videogame in order to placate him. Maybe all of the videogame stuff isn't the world of the film. Perhaps it's all in Scott's head. Now what would Scott's story be if it were seen objectively? Perhaps it's about the awkward moments that arise when you see people you used to date or people your girlfriend used to date. It might be about feelings of wanting them to disappear so you can go on being happy and forgetting about past romantic missteps and not having to think about your lover ever having been with someone else.
 
Do you think this sort of impressionism (if that's an appropriate term) takes the audience out of the story or draws them further in?
 
By the way, visiting Toronto fanned the flame of my Scott Pilgrim fandom, duh. I visited Sneaky Dee's and it did not disappoint. It was perfectly scuzzy, full of latrinalia-type art, the drinks were dirt cheap, and the patronage was as young as legally possible- dix-neuf.